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M.I.A. Zibanejad?


Keirik

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When do we start to worry? Pointless in his last 6 games for the first time since 17/18 season I believe. Face offs down, gets tons of looks on the pp, has been mostly a non factor, etc. This is a pretty big year for him, and for us to see what we commit to him after next season. Regardless of where we go this season, if this goes on for an extended period of time, we may be in a lot more trouble than we think. Good blip by Brooks today on it.

 

4. And in addition to everything else, the Rangers and Mika Zibanejad are set up for a contract negotiation this summer in advance of the final season of his deal and prospective 2022 unrestricted free agency, and how in the world is management going to approach this if No. 93 does not turn his year around? Six straight games without a point for No. 93, who has one goal and one assist for the first nine games. After shooting a slightly out of whack 19.7 percent last year (and an entirely out of whack 26.4 percent in recording 23 goals on 87 shots over the season?s final 22 games, though Steve Vickers converted at a 29.6 rate while scoring 29 goals in 1979-80), Zibanejad has scored on one of 30 shots thus far. Parts of Monday were a bit better, Zibanejad appeared to have the puck more often, but the Rangers have no chance if they don?t get a reasonable facsimile of the player No. 93 was in 2019-20. The Rangers? long-term second center situation is problematic enough. Now imagine if they don?t have a long-term first center. Or maybe better off that you don?t.

 

https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/rangers-showed-odd-affection-in-tony-deangelo-banishment/

 

 

Thoughts?

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As frustrating as it is, I think this is great for the Rangers.

 

They weren't making the playoffs anyway so a down year for Mika might keep him at a reasonable price in negotiations.

 

I'm not worried, I just think COVID effected him in a lot of ways. He got it before he came to the US which meant he didn't practice there. Missed all but one practice before the season started and just jumped straight into NHL games. No camp. No preseason. Nothing. One practice and then NHL hockey. That's a recipe for failure.

 

I imagine he'll slowly ramp up as the season goes on but his numbers overall will be much lower than they would have been otherwise.

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Yost wrote about Zibanejad today too:

 

https://www.tsn.ca/yost-s-posts-what-should-fantasy-hockey-managers-do-with-mika-zibanejad-1.1586708

 

The 2020-21 season is quite limited – Zibanejad has played just nine games so far – but the scoring numbers have been grim. Zibanejad’s lone goal this season came on the power play, and his lone assist came on a Pavel Buchnevich goal in the second game of the year.

 

That would be a slow start for any player of Zibanejad’s stature, let alone the player that we watched tear the Eastern Conference apart (41 goals and 34 assists) just one season ago.

 

Scoring slumps happen from time to time, and it’s important that when you are doing anything forward looking, you are reconciling two critical questions:

 

- Is the coaching staff still utilizing the player in the same or similar manner?

 

- Is the player still offensively active and being undermined by poor puck luck, or have his (and his linemates’) offensive scoring opportunities dwindled with time?

 

Let’s start with the deployment question, because I do think it’s the more interesting of the two in this case. We know simple ice time isn’t a factor – he’s playing about a shift less than last season but he’s still comfortably over 20 minutes a night, about where we would expect a top-six centre on a given team.

 

The players he’s playing with have changed though – in large part because of the Rangers winning last year’s draft lottery and grabbing blue-chip prospect Alexis Lafreniere with the first-overall pick. Lafreniere has been boosted immediately into the Rangers top six, and that means playing a decent chunk of minutes with Zibanejad.

 

yost2.png

 

 

...

 

Since Zibanejad’s playing relatively similar minutes and with relatively similar teammates, let’s turn our attention to the offensive production categories.

 

If we were concerned about Zibanejad’s slow scoring being indicative of larger struggles to come, we would see that Zibanejad’s simply less active in the offensive zone – he’s shooting less, his teammates are shooting less, the team is generating a higher proportion of their shots from the perimeter, and so on.

 

yost3.png

 

This is the sort of data that you look at as a coaching staff and conclude that changes may be needed.

 

The Rangers can ill-afford to have a line inside of the top six this unproductive offensively, and whether it’s on the shoulders of Zibanejad or his teammates (the answer is probably all of the above), the reality is they have taken a considerable step down from where they were one season ago. A season ago that, despite lucrative offensive seasons from their best players, saw the team only reach the postseason because of the expanded playoffs.

 

Bottom line, yeah he stinks and maybe Quinn should try to link him up with Panarin a bit more.

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Cool kids were talking about this a week ago, Lar.

 

 

I thought Zibanejad looked better last night. His mind seem to be going, he was trying to be on the puck more than previous games. And his offensive timing seemed to be much better.

 

With him missing time due to COVID, then his (non) concussion in game 3, we knew it would take a bit for him to be the same force.

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I think that corner slot pp look needs a serious tweak. Great it worked 4 times last year. Doest mean its now money.

He's way too close to the wall for it. Needs to eat h more Ovi videos to see where to actually be and not just think every goalie is going cross crease slowly.

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I think that corner slot pp look needs a serious tweak. Great it worked 4 times last year. Doest mean its now money.

He's way too close to the wall for it. Needs to eat h more Ovi videos to see where to actually be and not just think every goalie is going cross crease slowly.

 

He was 3rd in PPG last year with 7+ less games than everyone around him. He just needs to keep shooting, Kreider needs to do a little better job screening the goalie, and they'll be fine.

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He was 3rd in PPG last year with 7+ less games than everyone around him. He just needs to keep shooting, Kreider needs to do a little better job screening the goalie, and they'll be fine.

 

Well not from there. Looks like 7% of his goals came from there and none from the hash marks on the board side of the face off circle where he's been shooting this year. Stop listening to Vally :p

https://www.icydata.hockey/players/2246/mika-zibanejad

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Well not from there. Looks like 7% of his goals came from there and none from the hash marks on the board side of the face off circle where he's been shooting this year. Stop listening to Vally :p

https://www.icydata.hockey/players/2246/mika-zibanejad

 

First off, this is the nerdiest fucking conversation we've ever had on this board and I am HERE FOR IT. Nice!

 

The charts there are interesting - he's spending so much time in the low slot...why? Let's get him higher up on the ice.

 

He played well against Pitt, imo, and I'm looking forward to seeing those shots go in soon.

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He was 3rd in PPG last year with 7+ less games than everyone around him. He just needs to keep shooting, Kreider needs to do a little better job screening the goalie, and they'll be fine.

 

Agree. He was lights out last year from that spot. He looked better last night. Actually had his timing down.

 

I think the breakout is coming.

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First off, this is the nerdiest fucking conversation we've ever had on this board and I am HERE FOR IT. Nice!

 

The charts there are interesting - he's spending so much time in the low slot...why? Let's get him higher up on the ice.

 

He played well against Pitt, imo, and I'm looking forward to seeing those shots go in soon.

 

Best,

Mike

Welcome!

 

Now let?s take a quick look at the two heat maps for Ovy and Ziby. Bad comparison in terms of one being a hof top tier of all time and the other just supposedly coming into his own but still. This is just in comparison of where the goals are scored and how our pp is trying to look for that same kind of off wing one timer for goals. This is I think last ten years combined.

 

Ovy

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

 

Ziby

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

Now if you want to talk just last year since it?s the first year they were on similar goal pace and it was Zibys coming out, you can see Ziby still isn?t THAT deadly from that spot specifically. Ovy on the other hand love that left dot.

 

Ovy

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

 

Ziby

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

Ziby needs to be a hell of a lot more in between the dots and on the pp, I have no problem with him on that off wing. I do think he?s drifted way too close to the board though.

Look where this year he is taking shots from. Some are so low and wide on that left side.

new-heat-map.png

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I think he should spend an extended time watching video from last year, just to build his confidence. He looks to me like simply a ghost of that shark darting around the ice wreaking havoc and controlling things. He's not a little off; he's a lot off. BTW, he wasn't himself in the three "playoff" games last year, either.

 

If he ends up having an overall off season, I don't think there will be a new contract next summer, because there will be so much uncertainty from both sides. Impossible to value him.

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Welcome!

 

Now let?s take a quick look at the two heat maps for Ovy and Ziby. Bad comparison in terms of one being a hof top tier of all time and the other just supposedly coming into his own but still. This is just in comparison of where the goals are scored and how our pp is trying to look for that same kind of off wing one timer for goals. This is I think last ten years combined.

 

Ovy

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

 

Ziby

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

Now if you want to talk just last year since it?s the first year they were on similar goal pace and it was Zibys coming out, you can see Ziby still isn?t THAT deadly from that spot specifically. Ovy on the other hand love that left dot.

 

Ovy

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

 

Ziby

new-heat-map.png?goals=1

 

Ziby needs to be a hell of a lot more in between the dots and on the pp, I have no problem with him on that off wing. I do think he?s drifted way too close to the board though.

Look where this year he is taking shots from. Some are so low and wide on that left side.

new-heat-map.png

Does the heat map show shot attempts or SOG? Because he's shanking and shooting wide a lot.
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When do we start to worry? Pointless in his last 6 games for the first time since 17/18 season I believe. Face offs down, gets tons of looks on the pp, has been mostly a non factor, etc. This is a pretty big year for him, and for us to see what we commit to him after next season. Regardless of where we go this season, if this goes on for an extended period of time, we may be in a lot more trouble than we think. Good blip by Brooks today on it.

 

 

 

https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/rangers-showed-odd-affection-in-tony-deangelo-banishment/

 

 

Thoughts?

To paraphrase from another thread, based on my son's experience with COVID, give him another couple weeks before we worry.

 

Sent from my SM-G970U using Blueshirts Brotherhood mobile app powered by Tapatalk

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It seems reasonable to assume it's Covid related imo. We've seen it from time to time in other sports. Just like in society in general, most guys come back and are fine. But some struggle for a long time and it's usually down to respiratory issues. In the NFL, Myles Garrett was wrecking shop until he caught it halfway through the season. He came back after a couple of weeks and was nowhere near the same player, and never really got back to that level the rest of the season. He was complaining about being unable to catch his wind between plays. There are a couple of instances in the Premier League as well.

With Zib the drop in performance seems more significant than just not being 100% on his game. I'm speculating of course, but it seems the most likely explanation to me.

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Had an assist on the en last night so we are 10 games in

1 goal, 2 assists, -4. Took 2 penalties yesterday.

Yesterday...... 8 offensive zone starts, most for any forward on the team. 27 shifts, most for any non d on the team

 

Gotta get this guy going ASAP.

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